Monday, November 05, 2018

There's something about soldiers in scarlet coats.

In Chapter
VIII of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,
a militia regiment arrives in Meryton, to the delight of Lydia and Kitty
Bennet. ‘They could talk of nothing but
officers’ and every other topic of conversation ‘was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an
ensign.’ Their father calls them ‘two of the silliest girls in the country’, but Mrs Bennet says wistfully, ‘I remember the time when I liked a red coat
myself very well – and, indeed, so I do still at my heart.’

I was
reminded of this when I visited the Household Cavalry Museum recently and I have to admit that the sight of soldiers in uniform, wearing crested helmets and
scarlet jackets, sitting on gleaming black horses and being put through their
paces by an even smarter officer, gladdened my
heart, too. I knew just what Mrs Bennet meant. And the hundreds of people watching
the Household Cavalry completing the Changing of the Guard in Horse Guards
Parade obviously agreed.

Visitors
watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony in Horse Guards Parade.

I went
into the Household Cavalry Museum to find out more.

The
Household Cavalry is a union of the Life Guards (red jackets) formed by King
Charles II on the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660; The Royal Horse Guards,
known as ‘The Blues’ (blue jackets), raised in 1650 as part of Cromwell’s New
Model Army, and The Royal Dragoons, who were originally based in Tangiers. The
Blues and the Royals later amalgamated, hence ‘The Blues and Royals.’

These two
cavalry regiments form The Household Cavalry which has several functions; first
and foremost, they are soldiers, fighting wherever they are sent; they are
currently serving in Afghanistan. Their other important job is to protect the
Sovereign; and to undertake various ceremonial duties, such as the State
Opening of Parliament, escorting the Sovereign during State visits from foreign
heads of state, Royal Weddings and the like. Naturally, their equestrian skills
are superb.

Farrier’s
axe and officer’s helmet, early 19th century. The axe was used
to kill a badly wounded horse and also to chop the hoof off a dead one which
enabled the farrier to prove that the horse was dead and that he could apply
for a replacement.

I’ve
always been interested in early 19th century military history,
and I was delighted to find that the Household Cavalry Museum was full of
splendid uniforms, bloodthirsty weapons and anecdotes of astounding courage;
many of which centre on the battle of Waterloo, in June 1815. It was a battle
in which both the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals were heavily engaged.

Contemporary ceremonial dress Life Guards and Blues and Royals

Their
ceremonial dress is magnificent. The scarlet jacket belongs to the Life
Guards, and the dark blue belongs to the Blues and Royals. The basic design has
not changed very much over the centuries.

If Lieut.
Lorraine had been lucky enough to have been invited to the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, this is what he
would have worn. It’s made of blue woollen broadcloth with scarlet collar and
lapels, gold lace loops and gilt buttons. But the weather that June was
notoriously wet and a soaked blue broadcloth jacket would have weighed him down
terribly, so perhaps it’s just as well he wasn’t on the guest list. We know
that many of the officers at the ball went straight from the ballroom to the
battlefield.

Saddle
of an officer in The Blues used at the battle of Waterloo

When Major
Harry Smith set out for Brussels to join his regiment before the battle of
Waterloo, he took five horses, his wife Juana, himself, his brother Charles,
three servants and Juana’s pug-dog with him. And his regiment was only the
Rifle Brigade – not a smart cavalry regiment.

Officers
had to provide their own saddles and equipment as well as their horses. They
also had to buy an officer’s commission, starting at the bottom as a subaltern.
To get into a top cavalry regiment, like the Life Guards, was very expensive.
It wasn’t until after the fiasco of the Crimean War in the 1850s that officers could
enlist without having to pay, and were promoted on merit rather than their
ability to buy their way up the career ladder.

John
Edwards’ bugle

But you
didn’t have to be rich to become well-known in your regiment. Take John
Edwards, 1799-1875. He joined the 1st Life Guards age 9, in
1808, and became a bugler. At Waterloo, he was Field Trumpeter under
Major-General Lord Edward Somerset and, aged only 16, he was the person who gave the signal for
the decisive charge of the 1st Life Guards.

John Edwards' memorial card

His story
caught the public imagination and his long career became part of the story of
his regiment. The elaborate memorial card, crowned with angels holding
trumpets, printed after his death in 1875 indicates how well known his story
was. It ends with the sentence, ‘Now waiting the trumpet of salvation.’

The eagle
of the 105th regiment

The
capture of one of Napoleon’s eagles at Waterloo was cause for great
celebration. Napoleon had designed them himself – in emulation of Ancient Rome
– and presented them personally to his regiments, so losing one was felt as a
disgrace.

A replica of John
Shaw’s skull. Sir Walter Scott, who greatly admired Shaw, also had a replica made of
his skull

One of the
most flamboyant characters in the 2nd Life Guards was Corporal
John Shaw (1789-1815) who was famous for his size – he was over six foot – and
strength; he once carried two ponies down stairs, one under each arm (or so the
story goes). He took the King’s shilling, that is, he enlisted as a private in
1807 and soon caught the attention his officers by his strength and skill in
various regimental exercises. He became a renowned boxer and his entry in the
Dictionary of National Biography follows his career with gusto.

John
Shaw’s sword and scabbard

On the
morning of June 18th, 1815, he took part in the first charge of the
battle. A French cuirassier charged straight at him and Shaw parried the thrust
with his sword and finished off the cuirassier by slicing straight through his
helmet and skull right down to the chin. He fought ferociously in several other
charges but eventually found himself outflanked and surrounded. He killed nine
Frenchmen with his sword before it broke, then he tore his helmet off and began
to use it as a cestus – that is, a
sort of knuckle-duster used by boxers in Ancient Rome. He was eventually killed
by a cuirassier sitting a little way off who unsportingly, one feels, shot him
with his carbine.

The Earl
of Uxbridge’s cork leg

Henry
William Paget, Earl of Uxbridge (1768-1854) was a soldier who had fought with
great distinction both in Europe and in the Peninsular. He was also a man with
a scandalous private life – he had eloped with the Duke of Wellington’s
sister-in-law.

The Earl’s
knee was shattered by one of the last cannon shots of the battle. He was near
Wellington when it happened and exclaimed, ‘By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!’ To
which the Duke replied, coolly, ‘’By God, sir, so you have!’ His
unemotional response was possibly caused by his resentment at Uxbridge’s
behaviour – though Wellington’s own reputation with regard to the ladies was
hardly spotless.

The Earl’s
leg had to be amputated above the knee and he had a cork leg made. Dissatisfied
with it, he eventually had a fully-articulated prosthetic leg invented for him
which creaked loudly whenever it bent. However, it was successful enough to
become the standard prosthetic leg until 1914.

Mementos
from the battle of Waterloo

After the battle,
the looters moved in, and those of an entrepreneurial turn of mind who were
quick to see the value in souvenirs. Above are a couple of examples of mementos
from the battlefield. The curl of horse hair comes from Napoleon’s horse,
Marengo; and the hoof snuff box comes from one of the horses killed in the
battle. It’s gruesome, yes, but peace, however welcome after twenty-five years
of war, left a lot of people, including soldiers, unemployed. We know that
there were a lot of scavengers in the years following who made a living selling
whatever they could find on the battlefield, from teeth to gilt buttons and
bits of armour.

The
mounted guard looks both right and left to check for anything untoward.

The
Household Cavalry Museum at the Royal Horse Guards in Whitehall is well worth a
visit. You can even take a photo of yourself standing next to one of the guards,
just don’t expect him to smile; he’s trained not to.

10 comments:

Such an interesting post. I love Harry Smith. I read his autobiography and found that Heyer had also read it, so much of her Spanish Bride is taken from the early part. I can't believe any female doesn't have a hankering for a scarlet coat. Men do look so handsome in regimentals.

Thank you for your comment, Elizabeth. And it's true that men in regimentals look splendid - especially if their coats are scarlet. Though why the military insisted on wearing scarlet until the 1880s, I can't imagine. You'd have thought that the danger to the soldiers of wearing such a visible colour would have struck the top brass several hundred years earlier!

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